New research from HubSpot has found 66% of shoppers now rank transparency as their single most important brand quality, surpassing price competitiveness for the first time. From years of building a consumer brand, this rings true. I’ve learned that being open and honest from the outset always pays off.
Recently, several categories have faced scrutiny for an apparent lack of transparency, including babyfood and processed meats. Which? also recently published research showing caffeine levels in products from popular high street coffee chains can actually vary dramatically: one medium cappuccino contained 325mg, while another had just 89mg.
The idea that a standard coffee order can unknowingly deliver such wildly different results has sparked real debate.
Labelling offers another revealing example. In my own category, a non-alcoholic spirit must legally declare a full ingredients list and nutritional information. We also choose to name the botanicals used and suggest a perfect serve. By contrast, pick up a bottle of alcoholic spirit in any UK supermarket and turn it over, you’ll usually find the abv, an address and, if you’re lucky, an allergen declaration.
That’s often all: no ingredients list, no nutritional information, and little to tell you exactly what you’re consuming. alcohol above 1.2% abv is legally exempt from the requirement to list ingredients. For consumers, these exceptions are beginning to raise questions.
Whether or not transparency is legally required, consumers increasingly expect brands to explain what’s in their products and any state any nutritional claims. I saw this first-hand as the low & no category emerged. When a product claims to taste like alcohol without containing any, scepticism is understandable. People asked questions: What’s the process? Do you use botanicals? How do you make it taste like alcohol? It was natural to question something so unfamiliar, so transparency was key.
Openness became one of our most powerful trust-builders. The brands that treat transparency as a compliance burden rather than a brand opportunity are increasingly walking a riskier path. The ones that lean into it proactively stand to build a brand built to last.
Ellie Webb is the founder of Caleño Drinks
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